Car Engine Dies Randomly Long Island City NY

In this Q&A a car owner asks the Honest Mechanic what to do about a car engine that randomly dies. If your car’s engine is constantly dying in Long Island City this information could help you. Get informed and get on your way to fixing whatever is wrong with your engine.

I am looking at buying a 1998 Chevrolet Malibu w/4 cylinder engine. Owner fairly recently had starter changed. Since then it has a problem that the engine dies, randomly, but regularly, when slowing to a stop. Does not die when accelerating or at a maintained higher speed...only when down shifting and preparing to come to a stop. We drove it a couple of miles from their house to ours...died a couple of times...drove it back, it never died.

When the engine dies, you can simply put it in park/neutral, and it will start right back...never does, it not start when this happens. Do not have to turn the key all the way off to get it to restart...just simply turn to start position and it will fire right back up. I am thinking installation of starter really has nothing to do with this, but am wondering if installer left something disconnected that should be reconnected near that area?

Local Chevy dealer performed the installation of starter. We really like the car and I am sure we can get the problem resolved if we buy it, but I thought I would try to get a head start by asking some questions.

Have you ever heard of such a thing?

Any thoughts or tip would be appreciated.

Sincerely,

Marty

Hey Marty,

I would start by cleaning the throttle body and the idle control motor and see what happens. The throttle body is where the fresh air intake hose from the air cleaner meets the engine. Carbon can build up in the inlet opening causing erratic idle and dying at idle complaints.

Just about any local repair shop can do this simple and inexpensive maintenance item for you. It really should be done periodically for maintenance anyway regardless.

I would have the seller look into that for you BEFORE you buy the car. If that does not correct the issue…I would pass on this vehicle. The starter installation probably has nothing to do with it.

In this Q&A a car owner asks what to do about a 1998 Chevy Blazer that won’t start for long periods of time. The owner is stumped as to what the problem could be and needs some advice on how to fix the problem. Find out what to do if this ever happens to you and you begin having problems with your car engine.